For this year's Penn Science Research Symposium, the Penn Science Policy group decided to have an active presence at the event. With the help of Sima Patel and Mike Allegrezza, a poster was quickly constructed to highlight the group's activities along with the recent DC Advocacy Day. Folks like Chris Yarosh (pictured), were generous enough to man the poster during the poster session and field questions.
Mike also played a pivotal role in introducing the poster to staffers from Sen. Toomey and Sen. Casey's office. This was done so these staffers would now be aware of the group's presence on campus and to help set up networking events in the future. Mike also showcased some of the other posters to the staffers to help demonstrate how NIH dollars are being used for the development of new treatments such diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer.
Another highlight of the Symposium was having House Rep. Chaka Fattah deliver clo…

The DP has a great recap of the latest Rally for Medical Research Hill Day which occurred in late September. UPenn students and postdocs made the trip down to DC to make the case for biomedical research funding to Congress and their staff. We were joined by other scientists, physicians, patients and patient advocates who helped get the message out that deep arbitrary cuts to basic scientific research funding is a short-sighted and ineffectual solution to the country's fiscal problems.

The meeting with Representative Dent’s staffer Lauren Kent
–Stevens went very well. She was receptive to our messages of urging Rep. Dent
to continue his commitment to prioritizing the NIH. She reiterated that Rep.
Dent is a member of the appropriation committee that allocates funding for
agencies such as the NIH and that although he cannot sign HR1301 to send to
himself, he would respond favorably to the measure once it reaches his
committee. In addition, Ms. Kent informed us that Rep. Dent co-chairs the House
ethics committee, which informs a bipartisan group of representatives about
novel and exciting research by inviting scientists and innovators to speak at
meetings. Ms. Kent was interested in our research and about the grant finding
and application process. Finally, Ms. Kent urged us to reach out to state
legislators that do not see the importance of NIH funding in thei…